Nile Gardiner is a Washington-based foreign affairs analyst and political commentator. A former aide to Margaret Thatcher, Gardiner has served as a foreign policy adviser to two US presidential campaigns. He appears frequently on American and British television, including Fox News Channel, BBC, and Fox Business Network.

David Cameron has shown real leadership over the Lockerbie Bomber scandal

David Cameron is right to call for an independent inquiry into the British government’s role in the release of the Lockerbie bomber. As Cameron put it yesterday evening after the publication of damning new evidence that the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary supported freeing Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi:

"Tonight the British Government stands accused – and indeed the Prime Minister stands accused – of double dealing: on the one hand, saying to the Americans they wanted Megrahi to die in prison, but on the other hand saying privately to the Libyans that they wanted him released. Now we've got to get to the bottom of this. The British Prime Minister has got to be straight with the British people. For weeks he has been refusing to say publicly what he wanted to happen to Megrahi. Yet we learn apparently, privately the message was being given to the Libyans that he should be released.”

"I don't think we can now trust the Government to get to the bottom of this so I think the time has come for an independent inquiry led by a former permanent secretary or former judge to find out what more papers need to be released so we can see what the British Government was doing in our name." (hat tip – Jonathan Isaby)

I’ve disagreed with aspects of Cameron’s foreign policy in the past, but he is spot on in his analysis of the Lockerbie issue – in fact this is probably one of his best statements as leader of the opposition, and a clear sign that the Conservatives are serious about putting an end to the rot at the heart of government. This is not about political point scoring ahead of a general election. It is about holding officials to account over what could well be the biggest UK political scandal of the early 21st Century, with huge implications for Britain’s standing on the world stage as well as the future of the Anglo-American alliance.

It is also refreshing to see the opposition taking a clear, unequivocal stand against the freeing of a mass murdering terrorist, in stark contrast to the deafening silence of Gordon Brown, and the moral ambiguity over terrorism shown by David Miliband. The war against Islamist terror will be a priority issue for the next government, and we can do without the weak-kneed middle of the road rhetoric currently wafting out of Downing Street and the Foreign Office.

I hope that David Cameron’s hardline position over the Lockerbie affair will lead to a wholesale rethink of Britain’s strategy of engagement with dictatorial regimes such as Libya, not to mention Iran as well. The Labour government’s shameless wooing of tyrants such as Muammar Gaddafi has been an ugly stain on British foreign policy, and it is time for London to think twice before extending the hand of friendship to brutal state sponsors of terrorism, who can never be trusted.